February 2024

Who Do You Think You Are?

Family History brought to life

Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Sarah's Top Tip
Try reaching out to local historians as they may have answers to your queries I enjoyed Alan Crosby's answer to Hazel's question in our Q&A section this month (page 49). By contacting local historians in the area her ancestors had migrated to, he not
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Who Do You Think You Are?
EDITORIAL Editor Sarah Williams Production editor Seth Burgess Features editor Rosemary Collins Art editor Robbie Bennie ADVERTISING SALES Advertising manager Rebecca Janyshiwskyj 0117 300 8547 Brand sales executive Kelly Warden 0117 300 8538 Inserts
Who Do You Think You Are?3 min read
What's On
Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk to feature your event here for free This exhibition tells the stories of Second World War POWs GREAT ESCAPES: REMARKABLE SECOND WORLD WAR CAPTIVES Opens 2 February a The National Archives, London w nationalarchive
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min readInternet & Web
MyHeritage Announces New AI Tools
Family history website MyHeritage (myheritage.com) has announced that it is launching two new AI tools for its users. The first tool, AI Record Finder™, is an AI chat-based search engine that allows a website user to 'chat' with an AI assistant. If t
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Ministry Of Justice Proposes To Digitise Wills And Destroy Originals
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has opened a consultation on proposals to digitise all post-1858 wills in England and Wales, then destroy the originals. Civil registration of probate in England and Wales was introduced in 1858. Digital copies of wills
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Contributors
A renowned expert on workhouses, Peter is the creator of workhouses.org.uk and childrenshomes.org.uk. Turn to page 14 for his guide to the fascinating records you may find. As a professor of family law and the author of Marriage Law for Genealogists,
Who Do You Think You Are?7 min read
Burntwood Omission
Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk Write to WDYTYA? Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST WIN an AncestryDNA test kit from ancestry.co.uk WORTH £79 The writer of our star letter wins an AncestryDNA test worth £79 – so drop us a line and share your
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
News In Brief
The Stockport Heritage and Archives library at the town's Central Library has temporarily closed while its collections are relocated to a new home, Stockroom. This new “interactive learning and discovery centre” is due to open in Stockport's Merseywa
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
New Family History Research Hub Opens
A new venue that will help visitors explore their family history has opened its doors in Wharf Road, London. The Research Hub, run by the Society of Genealogists (SoG), opened to its members on 13 December 2023 and to members of the general public on
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Can You Help?
Cheshire Archives and Local Studies has announced Gems, described as “a new digital experience”, due to launch in spring 2025. The Cheshire Archives website says: “Visitors will be able to make an online search with a Cheshire postcode to find the cl
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min readSecurity
Details Of 6.9 Million People Breached On 23andMe
DNA testing the company 1910 23andMe has confirmed that details of 6.9 million people were accessed on its website in a data breach incident. On its website, 23andMe said that in October 2023 “a threat actor” accessed 14,000 23andMe accounts through
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
MyHeritage Adds German marriage Records
MyHeritage (myheritage.com) has added a new collection of marriage certificates from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, dating from 1874 to 1899. It includes scans of the original records, a searchable index, and records of nearly four milli
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Russell Crowe
The actor says he's descended from the last person beheaded in England (tinyurl.com/Guardian-Russell-Crowe-story) Kent baptism records have been added to Findmypast A self-portrait by the 19thcentury disabled artist has been acquired by the South Wes
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min readDiscrimination & Race Relations
Pen Returned To Holocaust Victim's Family
A pen owned by a man killed in the Holocaust has been returned to his family in London. The pen belonged to HansJoachim Bünger, a chemist from Dresden who was born in 1920. In 1943 he was deported to Buchenwald concentration camp and subsequently mov
Who Do You Think You Are?3 min read
Britain's Finest Hour
Among the family documents I inherited when my grandfather died in 1988 was a brown envelope on which my grandmother (who had died 15 years earlier) had written 'Grave Papers'. It contained a miscellany of items, including a certificate issued by the
Who Do You Think You Are?8 min read
Workhouse records
For many of our ancestors, the workhouse – and the poor relief system of which it formed a major part – loomed large in their lives. For those in need, it was the welfare system of its day, providing help for the homeless, the unemployed, the sick, t
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Relieving Officer's Application And Report Book
The Application and Report Book is a parish-by-parish record of each relief applicant's details – this includes their name, age, address, occupation, marital status, disabilities and dependents – and what the relief was that the parish had offered to
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min readCrime & Violence
Pauper Examination Books
Pauper Examination Books, though not frequent survivors, record details of the background and circumstances of a relief applicant where an investigation into their entitlement was deemed necessary. If settlement was an issue, entries could include ex
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Workhouse Medical Officer's Report Book
To prevent infectious diseases being introduced into the workhouse, new inmates were examined by the Workhouse Medical Officer. The WMO's Report Book records each person's name, age, date of admission, physical condition and capability to do work. Th
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Cottage Homes Admissions/discharge Register
This Cottage Homes Admissions/Discharge Register, part of Ancestry's 'London Poor Law and Board of Guardian Records' collection (1738–1926), is for the cottage homes at Hornchurch, run by the Shoreditch Board of Guardians. It records not only each ch
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Medical Officer's Relief List
For each patient, this register recorded their name, age, dates of admission to and discharge from the sick ward, the nature of their medical condition and its outcome, which might be death or transfer to the main workhouse or separate children's acc
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Infirmary Admission Register
Separate workhouse infirmaries kept their own admission/discharge and other registers. The format of Admission Registers varies but typically includes each patient's name, age, dates of admission and discharge and medical condition. They also sometim
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Religious Creed Register
The Religious Creed Register, usually held at the workhouse porter's lodge, was introduced in 1869 to allow local clergy to identify inmates from their particular denomination and ensure that their spiritual needs were met. As well as name, age, reli
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Resources
THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES a Kew, Richmond, TW9 4DU t 020 8876 3444 w nationalarchives.gov.uk TNA has workhouse staff lists, building plans and the huge 'MH12' union correspondence archive, now partly digitised, containing many handwritten letters from pa
Who Do You Think You Are?6 min read
'My Grandparents Loved Jungle Life'
A tiger pads softly through the long grass, following a bullock cart carrying children from school. The big cat coughs softly and one of the boys realises that they're being stalked, but he holds his nerve and the danger passes. The boy on the cart t
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Resources
SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES (SOAS) a University of London, 10 Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG t 020 7637 2388 e libenquiry@soas.ac.uk w soas.ac.uk/research/library SOAS holds a large collection of Christian missionary ar
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min readCrime & Violence
A Serial Bigamist
In 1900, 37-year-old laundress Mary Ann Dormer spotted a newspaper advertisement: “Superior working man, 23, with £30, wishes to correspond with superior domestic or others with about same capital, with a view to speedy matrimony.” Speedy indeed: wit
Who Do You Think You Are?5 min readCrime & Violence
Women And The Crime Of Bigamy
Many of us may suspect we have a bigamist lurking in our family tree. There might be rumours, or a suspicious remarriage where we have not been able to trace the death of the first spouse. But not everyone who remarried during the lifetime of a spous
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min readCrime & Violence
Resources
Divorced, Bigamist, Bereaved? The Family Historian's Guide to Marital Breakdown, Separation, Widowhood, and Remarriage: from 1600 to the 1970s Rebecca Probert Takeaway, 2015 Rebecca explains the law relating to divorce, and when a remarriage might be
Who Do You Think You Are?5 min read
Travel And Passenger lists
Passenger lists are used by family historians to trace the overseas movements of their ancestors – often due to emigration. You may be surprised to find that your forebear also travelled abroad for work, to study, to visit relatives or for tourism. W
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton 1874–1922
Born in Country Kildare, Ireland, Shackleton is one of the British Isles' most famous polar explorers. Having left school at 16 to join the Merchant Navy, he travelled widely from then on. Shackleton is perhaps best known for leading the legendary En
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Passenger List, 1917
You can look for more details of the vessel, including images if available, at shippingandshipbuilding.com and crewlist.org.uk. This might not be the port closest to your forebear's residence. Remember that this section refers to the destination of e
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Expert Picks
w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1518 Ancestry's collection contains digitised and transcribed passenger lists from The National Archives' series BT 26 recording travellers to the UK from overseas: over 16 million names. w https://heritage.statueo
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Resources
Migration Records Roger Kershaw A&C Black, 2009 This guide for family historians contains a wide array of practical advice and ideas that will help you trace your ancestors who migrated worldwide. w tinyurl.com/naa-arrivals Find out how to research t
Who Do You Think You Are?3 min read
The Holocaust
Within seven months during the Second World War, Zvi Kopolovich lost his father, brother and mother in the Holocaust. “We had our revenge: the survivors were able to raise magnificent families – among them myself. This is the revenge and the consolat
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Expert's Choice
As part of our ongoing effort to digitise one third of our collection, the Wiener Holocaust Library is launching a new digital library in summer 2024. This should revolutionise access to our archive. We hold one of the largest collections of Holocaus
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Go Further
w hmd.org.uk Holocaust Memorial Day – 27 January in 2024 – seeks to remember not only the Holocaust, but other genocides around the world including in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. w jgsgb.org.uk The JGSGB supports the work of Yad Vashem's Nam
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Birth Register, 1911
You will find three records to a page on the historic birth registers; modern registers carry one record per page. In Scotland, the time of every child's birth was recorded, as well as the date and place of the event. A child born at the end of a yea
Who Do You Think You Are?3 min read
Scottish Civil Birth records
The civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began in Scotland on 1 January 1855. Local registration districts were established across the country that conformed to the previous parishes of the Church of Scotland, each with a local registra
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Resources
Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records Chris Paton Pen & Sword, 2019 This details the legal background to Scottish civil registration records, as well as the Church-recorded baptismal entries before 1855. w tinyurl.com/scot-g
Who Do You Think You Are?7 min read
Q&A
ALAN CROSBY is the editor of The Local Historian – read his column on p13 DEBBIE KENNETT is the author of DNA and Social Networking NICOLA MORRIS is a genealogist based in Dublin (timeline.ie) CHRIS PATON is a genealogist and author who blogs at scot
Who Do You Think You Are?2 min readPopular Culture & Media Studies
Who Could The Sitters Be In This Photograph?
Q This photograph has come from my parents, but I don't know who the sitters are. The lady front centre looks as if she's in mourning, but without knowing the date, I cannot identify her. The photograph is printed as a postcard. Ron Flook A Family ph
Who Do You Think You Are?3 min read
Why Did My Ancestors Move From Dorset To Yorkshire?
Q I am trying to discover why some of my Dorset ancestors (including the Coxs and the Skillers) chose to start a new life in Saddleworth, Yorkshire, in the 1870s. In Saddleworth's 1871 census, only one resident had been born in Dorset; by the 1881 ce
Who Do You Think You Are?2 min read
What Did Grandfather Frank Do In The War?
Q This is my grandfather, Frank Burton (1896–1947). He served with the South Staffordshire Regiment and, I think, later the Labour Corps in the First World War. Can you tell me anything more about him? Steven Sant A This is a Royal Artillery soldier,
Who Do You Think You Are?3 min read
Explore Old London Maps For Free Online
When the website Layers of London (layersoflondon.org) launched back in late 2018, it offered six historical maps of the nation's capital to browse, plus the opportunity to attach the stories of your London ancestors to the places where they lived. F
Who Do You Think You Are?4 min read
TREATING Tuberculosis
A disease known since ancient times, tuberculosis (TB) thrived in Victorian Britain, with its increasing population, overcrowded living conditions and polluted environment. The 'white plague' could affect numerous parts of the body, including the joi
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Sir Robert William Philip 1857–1939
Born in 1857, Robert Philip was the youngest son of a Free Church of Scotland minister. Educated in Edinburgh, he studied medicine at the university there, graduating in 1882. That year, Philip travelled to Vienna where Robert Koch had just announced
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Resources
Tuberculosis Sanatorium Regimen in the 1940s: a Patient's Personal Diary Raymond Hurt Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2004 w tinyurl.com/jrsm-tb This article includes extracts from the 1940s diary of a woman treated in a sanatorium for pulm
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Research Clerics In Your Family
w ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1923/ Search the Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae for details of more than 2,000 Scottish ministers (1560–1866). Various editions/volumes are also on the Internet Archive (archive.org). w theclergydatabase.org.uk This co
Who Do You Think You Are?4 min read
'A Will Revealed Our high-flying Ancestors'
CELEBRATING YOUR DISCOVERIES Chinese whispers can lead family historians on a merry journey through time. Some of the anecdotes passed down to us may prove fanciful, while others contain an important grain of truth. Tracie Jackson was keen to explore
Who Do You Think You Are?3 min read
Behind The Doors Of Valentines
Valentines Mansion in Ilford, Essex, was built in 1696 and is Grade ll* listed. A family home until 1906, it was acquired by the local council, and from 1994 was unoccupied and falling into disrepair. Friends of Valentines Mansion was established in
Who Do You Think You Are?4 min read
Kent
A great deal of family history research in Kent can be carried out remotly. As well as thousands remotely. As well as thousands of free-to-view images of parish registers and Bishops' Transcripts available via FamilySearch (familysearch.org ), there'
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Kent Through The Ages
The coastal towns of Dover, Hythe, Romney, Hastings and Sandwich provide ships and men for Edward the Confessor. They will become known as the Cinque Ports. Canterbury Cathedral by four knights loyal to Henry II. The city subsequently becomes a place
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Free Online Records
w tinyurl.com/bromgov-ind This page lists several free indexes and finding aids, including workhouse registers and a century of funeral accounts from a Bromley undertaker. w tinyurl.com/fs-kent-par-reg Visit the FamilySearch website for transcription
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min readForeign Language Studies
Kent Surnames
While Byngs turn up in Hampshire and Worcestershire, this spelling variant is more common in Kent. This locative name comes from the village of Brenchley, near Tunbridge Wells. Chittenden comes from a place near Cranbrook in the Weald of Kent. The su
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
HOP-PICKING For Generations, Our Ancestors Would Head To Kent For The Summer
The first English hop garden is believed to have been established in Westbere, near Canterbury, in 1520. Commercial cultivation developed alongside beer production, with local brewers eventually supplying the Royal Navy at Chatham and Deal. During th
Who Do You Think You Are?2 min read
Kent Directory
a Kent History and Library Centre, James Whatman Way, Maidstone ME14 1LQ t 03000 420673 e archives@kent.gov.uk w kentarchives.org.uk The county archive holds court documents, cornoners' records, registers of apprentices and freemen, and archives of t
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Visit Us
DEVON HERITAGE CENTRE a Great Moor House, Bittern Road, Exeter EX2 7NL t 01392 888700 e devonarchives@swheritage.org.uk w tinyurl.com/swheritage-devon-arch-dhc The centre is open Tuesday to Thursday, 10am–5pm. Please book your appointment in advance
Who Do You Think You Are?4 min read
Legal Depositions, 1717–1720
The Cary family of Torquay were important landowners in Devon, and lived at Cockington Court and then Torre Abbey for almost 300 years from 1662. The Devon Heritage Centre in Exeter holds the family papers, which provide a record of their lives throu
Who Do You Think You Are?2 min read
Unravelled
Unicorn, 310 pages, £25 There is no such thing as an 'ordinary' family history, but Fanny Mills' family story encompasses more remarkable elements than most. On her mother's side, she has connections to British aristocracy; William IV was a direct an
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Digital Picks
Rosemary Collins highlights three digital resources that caught our eye this month Podcast services Free This podcast from Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University tells the stories of the Irish women who emigrated to North America between 18
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min readDiscrimination & Race Relations
Where Are You From? No, Where Are You Really From?
MIXED-HERITAGE FAMILY HISTORY AUDREY OSLER Virago, 224 pages, £20 This book is the story of the author's mixed-heritage family history over three centuries as shaped and influenced by the British Empire. It is her attempt to inform herself about who
Who Do You Think You Are?2 min read
TV & RADIO
ITV1 & ITVX From Monday 22 January, 9pm For those born from a donor, there is always the possibility of one day meeting siblings they never knew existed. That's especially true for those conceived after 31 March 2005. This is because changes in the l
Who Do You Think You Are?2 min read
Who Do You Really Think You Are?
BBC Sounds Available to stream In the words of population geneticist Dr Adam Rutherford, we live in an era when genealogy has become “radically democratised”. It's safe to say that many – if not most – of us trying to find out about our family trees
Who Do You Think You Are?3 min read
'Edward Survived A Boer Attack'
There is a magical element to genealogy – especially when it allows us to get to know relations we could never have met. This is the case for Josie Aslett. “My mum, Florence, grew up as an orphan and knew little of her parents' lives,” explains Josie
Who Do You Think You Are?1 min read
Welcome
Not long ago I didn't think any of the people on my family tree had faced the ignomy and hardship of the workhouse. How wrong I was! If you have family who were scraping a living as agricultural labourers or living in city slums, the workhouse would

Who Do You Think You Are?

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